Rush for Reed, but other stocks drift

Publishing and exhibition group Reed Elsevier rose nearly 6% yesterday after a push from analysts at Goldman Sachs.

The bank has added Reed shares to its "conviction buy" list after a prolonged period of underperformance. The recommendation pushed Reed 27p higher to 487.25p, making it the best performer in the leading FTSE100 index.

Overall the market had another directionless day, with the FTSE 100 finally finishing 20.59 points lower at 3968.40. There was little inspiration from Wall Street, following downbeat US economic news, including consumer inflation falling 0.1% and industrial production dropping 1.5% in March. That came along with a disappointing outlook statement from Intel and comments from Wal-Mart suggesting there would be no quick end to the recession.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up only 20 points by the time London closed.

Defensive shares were in demand once more, with British American Tobacco 71p better at £15.66 and Imperial Tobacco 52p higher at £14.82. BAT was also helped by brokers Charles Stanley and Investec issuing buy notes.

Pharmaceutical companies moved higher, with GlaxoSmithKline up 16p to £10.24 and Shire rising 22p to 825p as vague takeover talk resurfaced.

Investors shied from miners and banks. Vedanta Resources closed 76p lower at 932p, Xstrata was down 40p at 573.5p and Rio Tinto lost 129p to £23.71 after a first quarter drop in aluminium and iron ore output. Oil shares reversed earlier gains after crude prices fell, prompted by news that US stocks last week were at their highest level for 20 years. BP slid 9p to 429.5p, while Royal Dutch Shell B shares fell 8p to £13.90.

As for the banks, they fell back once more after news of a £1.17bn quarterly loss by Swiss bank UBS. Lloyds Banking Group lost 3.8p to 84.1p, while Royal Bank of Scotland fell 1.5p to 27.7p despite suggestions it was in talks with three banks that might buy its Asian businesses. Schroders, the fund manager, lost 59.5p to 812p after a downgrade from Credit Suisse.

Arms group BAE Systems climbed 11.75p to 334.75p as it was awarded a role in a $50bn US government information technology contract.

Lower down the market, oil and gas explorer Regal Petroleum dropped 2.25p to 50p as it said talks with Australia's Macquarie about a $100m loan had ended and it was exploring other options.